When an alarm clock goes off, it reminds us to wake up and get going. Many of us hit the “snooze” option (repeatedly!) to gain a few more minutes of sleep until another reminder goes off in another attempt to get us to wake up and get going.
In addition to the alarm clock, we may receive reminders in other ways. For example, we may receive messages reminding us of doctor's and dentist's appointments, school meetings, work deadlines, sports schedules, family gatherings, outings with friends, or other events. Often, these messages are delivered via voice mail messages to voice mail systems. When I listen to my voice mail messages, I may receive one or more messages that serve as reminders. Sometimes these messages relate only to me. At other times, the messages may be pertinent to other people.
When I receive a voice mail message that is pertinent to other people, I have few options for providing the other people with the information. For example, if I receive a voice mail message on our voice mail system about a change in the scheduling of my husband's weekend soccer game, I may desire to share that information with my husband. (At least, he would desire I share this information with him!) If my husband is not at home, I could call him with the information. But that would entail me leaving the voice mail system and placing a separate call to my husband. Knowing that my husband is busy in meetings all day, I may decide to make the call, even though I know that I will reach my husband's voice mail system and I will have to record a summary of the change in the soccer schedule.
In other words, conveying the information on the change in soccer schedule is complicated by the fact that I have to exit my voice mail system, make a call to my husband's telephone number, reach his voice mail system, and record my own message summarizing the details of the schedule change that were provided in the original message. Leaving my voice mail system is inconvenient because I may have to interrupt my review of our other voice mail messages. I could avoid the interruption and finish reviewing our other voice mail messages, but the information may be urgent and important to my husband. In addition, I may forget the details of the changes in the soccer schedule if I do not make an immediate call to my husband. Making a call to my husband's telephone number consumes my time and may be inconvenient—especially if he or I are busy with other matters. The inconvenience is exacerbated by reaching my husband's voice mail system instead of reaching him directly. Typically, a call to my husband's office requires several unanswered ring cycles to result in diversion of the call to the voice mail system. Thus, my time is wasted and I am inconvenienced while I interrupt my review of our voice mail messages, while I make the call to my husband's number, and while I wait for my call to rollover to his voice mail system.
When I finally reach my husband's voice mail system, I have to listen to his greeting, and then record a voice mail message including the details of the change in the soccer schedule. Waiting for the greeting to finish wastes my time. The waste of time is an inconvenience, but it also may operate to create problems with message delivery. After having to interrupt my review of voice mail messages or after completion of my review of voice mail messages, after making the call to my husband's telephone number, and after waiting through several ring cycles to be routed to my husband's voice mail system, I may have forgotten or otherwise confused the details of the change in the soccer schedule. The message I record may not accurately reflect the change in the soccer schedule. The result is that I may have wasted my time and also my husband's time through the inefficient and incorrect relay of information regarding the change in the soccer schedule.
To solve the problems, I may suggest that my husband give up soccer. Knowing that is an impossible request, there is a need for a way to be able to relay the information about the change in the soccer schedule without having to interrupt my review of voice mail messages, without having to exit my voice mail system, without having to make a separate call, without having to wait through several ring cycles to reach my husband's voice mail system, without having to remember all of the details of the change in the soccer schedule, and without having to record a new message.
Some people, like my husband, pay less attention to waiting voice mail messages than to “live” or real-time calls. Thus, my husband may ignore my voice mail message regarding the change in his soccer schedule, and as a result, may fail to make appropriate schedule adjustments and may miss his soccer game. Knowing the unhappiness a missed soccer game will cause my husband, I would prefer to inform him of the change in soccer schedule through a real-time call. I could wait to call him until a time when I know he will be available to take the call. But that is an inconvenience to me. Moreover, I may forget to make the reminder call at the later time. Even if I remember to make the call, I may garble the message. There is a need for a way to be able to provide the information about the change in the soccer schedule in a real-time call that may be scheduled for a time when my husband is available. It would be desirable to furnish my husband with the actual voice mail message at a time convenient to him and in a real-time telephone call.
The voice mail message I received about the change in the soccer schedule may be pertinent to other members of my husband's team. It would be convenient if I could relay the information about the schedule change to the other members at the same time that I relay the information to my husband. Thus, there is a need for a way to convey information received in a voice mail system message as a reminder message to more than one other person or destination. It would also be desirable to have a way to convey the information to each of the other people or destinations at a time when and in a manner that is most convenient to the recipient. Thus, there is a need for a way to convey information received in a voice mail message as a reminder message to more than one other person or destination at respectively different times.
The change in my husband's soccer schedule may affect my own activities. For example, as a result of the change in the soccer schedule, I may have to pick-up my husband from the soccer game. It would be desirable to have a way to remind myself to pick him up. I could leave myself a note, tie a string around my finger, or take other measures. But these reminders are easily overlooked. A ringing telephone is not as easily overlooked. It would be desirable to receive a reminder call in advance of the time I need to pick up my husband from his soccer game.
In some systems, I would be able to record a message and designate a time for delivery to myself. But, again, having to leave the voice mail system and record a message is time consuming and inconvenient. It would be great if I could have the original voice mail message regarding the change in soccer schedule delivered to me at an appropriate time. Further, it would be even better if I could have the original voice mail message delivered to me on my cell phone (rather than the home telephone) because I will be out shopping just prior to having to pick up my husband from soccer. Thus, there is a need for a way to convey information such as a reminder message at an appropriate time, conveniently, and in a manner that is not easily overlooked.
In sum, there is a need for methods and systems that relay information in an efficient and accurate manner. In particular, there is a need for methods and systems that allow for the information in a voice mail message to be relayed to one or more others in an efficient and accurate manner. There is a further need for methods and systems that allow for the information in a voice mail message to be conveyed at a time and in a manner most convenient or advantageous to the sender and/or the recipients. Finally, there is a need for methods and systems that allow a voice mail message to be provided at a later time as a reminder message in a manner that will be noticed and at a time appropriate to the subject matter.